Pay and Play LO5186

Catherine Campbell (campbell@upanet.uleth.ca)
Sun, 28 Jan 1996 16:25:01 -0700

Replying to LO5129 --

Hi I am late into this discussion and hope those attending are not
completely exhausted by it.

I am currently conducting a set of workshops that focus on personal
strengths, leadership models, competitive edges, and stepping forward.
The participants come from small to medium sized businesses (1 to 100
employees). One of the focal discussions has been an exploration into the
models that we use in leading and managing others and what sort of an
impact that has on the working environment and the ability to respond to
work.

I start by asking where each participant learned their leadership skills.
The majority (98%) respond that they were not trained but were promoted to
leading/managing/supervising (lms) for doing a good job at the work they
were promoted to be in charge of. Then we look at where they turned to
find the ability to lms. The response through all of the workshops has
been from three sources: parent, teacher, and occasionally siblings/peers.
Most agree that the latter is only a second-hand relay from the previous
two. We then discuss what other sources they found available after trying
and erroring. Those usually focus on training/learning experiences and the
model of others within their workplace.

>From the above discussion, we review percentage of exposure to all of
these sources, (yes this will get to the point of performance review,
reward, and relationships at work), The net result is that parent/teacher
(pt) source has the largest exposure time and thus the largest impact on
lms. When untrained, the result is to use what you have available.

This discussion leads into a description of the pt model. Concensus has
been through all of the workshops that the pt model revolves around;
control, direction and authority (cda). Participants focus on these terms
and discuss the positive aspects, the tendency is at first to feel they
are a negative but the agree cda are the core characteristics of the
experience (they also note that they maybe changing today).

The expression of cda is personal. Pointing to personal success and
personal failure. I have only once found an individual who felt they did
all they could in school, the rest could have tried harder. Disappointed
or less than a success, it was enough to get on with more learning. This
personal focus also appears in a response to the question: "Who was the
best teacher you ever had?". The response has always been about the
relationship with that teacher, how the individual was treated by the
teacher and little about what was actully learned. Personal lms based on
cda always leads to a personal response. The job is YOUR job the boss is
accountable for HIS/HER department. You are obliged to perform the work,
after all thats what you were hired to do. You owe the company. Of course
all of the above statements are untrue. The company requires the work and
hires/contracts with the ivdividual to perform it in return for due
compensation, that is paid after the work is performed. This relationship
is co-responsive. I work, you pay, I work, you pay, etc. The pt model
forces this relationship into one focused on personal issues and not about
work.

--
Catherine Campbell                                  e-mail:
CAMPBELL@upanet.uleth.ca
Soc 1000                                                 Public Access
Internet - via the University of Lethbridge
190 Oxford Rd. West                               Phone & Fax:   (403) 381 3774
Lethbridge, Alberta    
Canada  T1K 4V4  

"Life-learning: creating new forms, and in turn not diminishing possibilities"